Yousif Capital Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Key Points

• Yousif Capital Management LLC increased its stake in EchoStar Corporation by 8.2%, owning 44,884 shares valued at approximately $1.24 million following an acquisition of 3,416 shares in Q2.
• Insider transactions revealed that CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 233,918 shares for about $17.6 million, significantly reducing his ownership by 38.3%.
• Analysts have upgraded EchoStar's stock ratings, with Citigroup and Zacks Research both issuing a strong-buy rating, while the average target price is set at $75.20.

Yousif Capital Management LLC increased its stake in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) by 8.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 44,884 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 3,416 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC's holdings in EchoStar were worth $1,243,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 8,125.0% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 987 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 975 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in EchoStar by 39.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,441 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $88,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama bought a new stake in EchoStar during the first quarter valued at about $3,762,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in EchoStar during the first quarter valued at about $175,000. Finally, Amalgamated Bank increased its stake in EchoStar by 50.3% during the first quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 53,287 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $1,363,000 after acquiring an additional 17,830 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at EchoStar

In other news, COO Paul Gaske sold 750 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.32, for a total value of $58,740.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 233,918 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.35, for a total value of $17,625,721.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 376,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at $28,392,256.75. The trade was a 38.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 460,740 shares of company stock valued at $35,967,480 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 55.70% of the company's stock.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of SATS stock opened at $74.15 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $63.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.93. The company has a market cap of $21.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -70.62 and a beta of 0.96. EchoStar Corporation has a 12 month low of $14.90 and a 12 month high of $85.37.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.06. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 2.04% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. The firm had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.76) earnings per share. The company's revenue was down 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on SATS shares. Citigroup upgraded EchoStar from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of EchoStar from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EchoStar has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $75.20.

EchoStar Company Profile

EchoStar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides networking technologies and services worldwide. The company operates in four segments: Pay-TV, Retail Wireless, 5G Network Deployment, Broadband and Satellite Services. The Pay-TV segment offers a direct broadcast and fixed satellite services; designs, develops, and distributes receiver system; and provides digital broadcast operations, including satellite uplinking/downlinking, transmission and, other services to third-party pay-TV providers; and multichannel, live-linear and on-demand streaming over-the-top internet-based domestic, international, Latino, and Freestream video programming services under the DISH and SLING brand names.

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